The woman didn't invite Wen Rui to take a seat in the living room. She didn't treat him as a guest but she didn't make him feel like he was a welcomed member of the family either. Perhaps she thought that she was humiliating him by leaving him standing awkwardly at the foot of the stairs.
But all Wen Rui could think was, [No wonder Father cheated on Ma, he likes his women cheap and ill-mannered.]
She might have replaced Wen Rui's mother as mistress of the house and that might have elevated her social standing. But it didn't make her any more cultured or refined than she originally was.
Wen Rui turned to Uncle Peng, who hovered behind him like a fretful mother hen that was trying to decide how best to protect its chick from a vicious predator. "What's her name?" he asked.
To Wen Rui, this was a perfectly valid question. Because of his amnesia, he didn't recognise this stranger that stood in his parents' house putting on airs and graces like this was her rightful place. But his words were grating to the woman's ears as she thought that Wen Rui was mocking her.
She sneered. "We'll see how long you can remain arrogant for."
Wen Rui ignored her. "Uncle Peng," he murmured. "I really forgot."
Uncle Peng sweated buckets. This was the first time his butler's uniform looked so dishevelled. He, too, thought that Wen Rui must be trying to insult the new mistress but out of his fondness for the boy he watched over since young, did not want to leave him hanging.
"Young Master Wen…this is the master's second wife, Madam Lu Xiamei."
"Ohhh." Wen Rui nodded sagely. "Auntie Lu. Got it."
The temperature in the room dropped steadily. Wen Rui wasn't sure what he had said to garner such a reaction. Did this Auntie Lu expect him to address her as 'Mother'? In which case, the only thing he wished to say to her was, "Please take a nap, anything is possible in dreams."
"Y-young Master, that's the address you should be using with Housekeeper Lu, not...not—"
Wen Rui waved off Uncle Peng's concerns. "What's the matter? They're both women of a generation older than I am, of course I should address them both as Auntie Lu." He smiled up at the woman on the staircase, whose eyes were now staring at him with such hateful malice that he suspected she wanted to shred his face with the sharp tips of her nail extensions.
It suddenly occurred to Wen Rui that this here was a person who hated him. And had reason to ruin his reputation. He thought about the successive scandals that he'd had to weather through in recent times. How many of them had her shadow been lurking behind?
Lu Xiamei suddenly laughed. "You think you're all that," she said dismissively. "You're acting like you're still the heir apparent of your father's company. But you know what? Wen Rui, you're a big boy now, it's time to face the truth. Your father doesn't love you. No matter how much you act up to try and catch his attention, it won't work. He has abandoned you for a new family, forgotten about you."
He hears Uncle Peng's sharp inhale and weak protest but her words don't sting as much as Wen Rui expects. Perhaps this is because he has been psyching himself up for the blow ever since that phone call with Xu Mushen. Or perhaps he already knew this subconsciously.
"So it was really my father's decision to marry me off?" he asked calmly. He didn't deny that his father had left their old life together to start a new one on his own. Even this house, which had once been so familiar to Wen Rui, was different now. There were new paintings and photographs on the wall and even some of the furniture had been changed to suit new tastes.
"What, you think I coaxed him into agreeing to arrange your marriage?" Lu Xiamei shook her head. There was false pity in her gaze. "How on earth are you still so sheltered? Accept it, brat, your father sold you. And do you know why?"
Wen Rui didn't ask but she continued regardless. "If you want to blame anyone," she said breezily. "Blame yourself for looking like the spitting image of your mother."
"Thank you for the compliment," Wen Rui said with disinterest. He could tell that she was trying to get a rise out of him. She was hinting that there was more to his parents' marriage than he'd thought, a hidden reality that she thought would tear him apart from inside. But Wen Rui didn't care. His mother was the most precious thing in the universe to him and now that she was dead and he had discovered that his father had betrayed her…
Lu Xiamei kept insisting that Wen Rui's father didn't love him. But wasn't it the same on Wen Rui's part? There was no love lost.
"It's not a compliment!" Lu Xiamei snarled, his flippant attitude causing her to lose her cool first. "Your mother came between us, I was the one he loved but I had to live like a homewrecker when the both of you wrecked my home!"
Wen Rui shook his head internally. What did his father see in this woman? She had none of the bearings a socialite should have, wasn't he embarrassed to take her out for public events?
"Auntie Lu," he said, his politeness as sincere as her earlier pity was. "You say my mother came between the both of you? Why don't you ask yourself why you're with a man who would marry another woman while promising he loves you? Do you want to know what I think? I think my father's a disgusting bastard and you're still with him because you're an opportunistic gold-digger."
"Young Master!"
A decorative vase on the landing came flying down at him but Wen Rui avoided it cleanly. It smashed onto the marble floor with an earsplitting crash.
"Careful, Auntie Lu, that was my father's favourite Ming vase, it's an excellent grade imitation of a genuine imperial one that he failed to obtain in an auction a couple of years ago. But you wouldn't know its value, of course."
"GET OUT!" Lu Xiamei shouted. "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, YOUR FATHER SAID YOU'RE NOT WELCOME ANYMORE SO DON'T EVEN THINK OF GETTING ANYTHING OUT OF US!"
From her tone, she wasn't even going to let him visit his old bedroom anymore. That was fine. Wen Rui wouldn't be surprised if she'd thrown away all the belongings he hadn't taken along with him to the 'nuptial home'.
He turned to leave. "Don't worry, Auntie Lu," he said, calling back over his shoulder. "I didn't return to snatch your hard-earned money, I just wanted to see how bad my father's taste is."
It was appalling. If this was what the new madam of the Wen Family was like, then Wen Rui could only be glad that he could disassociate himself from them now that he was over 21.
The driver had obtained permission to enter the compound anyway because the limousine was waiting for Wen Rui right at top of the driveway when he walked out through the main doors.
"Keep in touch, Uncle Peng," he said, expression finally softening when he laid eyes on the dismayed elderly gentleman again.
"You too, Young Master." Uncle Peng's eyes reddened. He let out a heavy sigh. "How did things turn out like this…"
Wen Rui didn't know either. "Perhaps," he said distantly. "It's for the best." Rather than live a lie, his mother was at least at peace. And Wen Rui would survive regardless.
He waved goodbye to Uncle Peng before getting into the backseat. He didn't glance back even once as the car started moving, heading towards the main gates that he used to look forward to seeing every weekend when he returned from dorms.
Although he wasn't as upset as he thought he would be, Wen Rui remained muted for the entire journey back to the apartment, a heavy feeling weighing on his chest. It felt a bit like having a mild asthma attack but without the tightening in his windpipe and the mounting anxiety.
The lock to the penthouse clicked and whirred when Wen Rui tapped the card key on the reader. He pushed it open and—
"You're home."
He drew in a sudden breath of fresh air before looking up. Zhou Ye, in a plain black tee and loose sweats. A towel around his neck and a glass of fresh milk in his hands, newly out of the fridge, judging by the condensation forming on its surface. This was the Zhou Ye that he had woken up to on that first morning he'd lost his memories. Relaxed and casual, nothing like the pristine businessman Wen Rui sees in the media.
And he called this place home. Perhaps Zhou Ye didn't mean anything by it, was using the word interchangeably with 'house'. But to Wen Rui, who had nowhere else to belong to, it was a lot.
Some of the ache in Wen Rui's chest subsided. He met Zhou Ye's eyes. Behind him, the door swung shut.
"I'm home."